Writing, secrets and loads of chocolate cake!

As you can tell from my previous posts I am very sporadic at updating this blog, it is something I am trying to work on but I tend to blog when I feel the need to say something and a couple of things happened in the past couple of weeks which inspired me to write this post.

The first thing was a thread on the Kindleboards entitled “Getting rid of the indie stigma”, I found some of the posts were very interesting and the second thing was that I got an email from musician called Jason Manns, which was very unexpected and I might as well give him a quick plug and say that his second album “Soul” has just been released, so I hope that you check it out.

Anyway, these two events got me thinking about my decision to publish and the road I have decided to go down. Now, I think going Indie is the best thing for me and this choice might not be for everyone but you have to define your goals and choose the right path for your book. I have a motto which is: Anything is possible and that you should never give up on your dreams!

As I said in a previous post I know that going Indie will be hard not just because of all the work involved but also because for some strange reason if you want to go Indie and you’re a writer then you may have to deal with the stigma which really isn’t the case if you’re a musician or a film-maker but if you’re a writer then you are normally unfairly labelled an amateur or that your work is bad because you didn’t go the commercial route. Now, with all things there are good & bad, but I do think that is it wrong just to label something bad because of the way it was published. I have read some outstanding indie novels and I am proud to have them in my book collection, I am glad that these authors made their work available and I am hoping that I will have the pleasure of interviewing a new indie author, Michelle H, some time in the future and I have already interviewed Stefanie Ellis, author of the Gray Area Series, her interview can be found here.

So, I suppose the question I want to ask is: Why the stigma if you’re an indie author? If you do your homework & produce the best book you can then should it really matter if your book is a Lulu instead of a Random House or a Createspace instead of a Simon & Schuster. I know that others will disagree but at the end of the day you should do what you feel comfortable with and if you write an amazing book then that should be want counts.

I think there are some people that believe that a commercially processed book has been accepted by those whose job it is to look out for the best, but going down that route doesn’t guarantee success or that your audience will like it. At the same time, just because you’ve done something yourself doesn’t mean it will be bad because there are some excellently written indie novels out there.

I’m not saying either way is better or worse, but I don’t think there should be such an elitist attitude regarding the subject. If it’s how people prefer to be published then live and let live I say!

On May 5, 2010 at 7:15 pm pashunissavvy said:

Interesting post. I have a friend who has been publishing via Lulu for several years. His books are great. He writes about romance, and I typically don’t care for it. But he makes it interesting. But he’s not a famous author because he’s not with a big publishing house.

It’s all about politics. Usually getting involved with big publishing houses also involves who you know and what big magazines you have written articles for.

Some of the best movies or musicians are independent or on independent labels and budgets. So why can’t authors be treated the same?

On May 9, 2010 at 12:15 am booksandbites said:

Suzanne – Thank you for making my day with your comment I do come across a lot of people that wouldn’t read my book because I want to go down the Indie route. It is like because I would like full control over my work which I would lose if I went down the commercial route that may work will be inferior. And I agree I wish people would give us Indies a chance.

Pashunsavvy – I think it comes down to what the author wants, if they want “fame” then sure sell your soul and take your bag of silver. But guess what their book will only available for around six weeks, where as my book will be available while there is an Internet. I wish that authors were treated the same because back in the day all the greats were Indies, it only in the past 100 years or so when the big six publishers came that it was wrong if you wanted to release the book the way you saw it and not what the gatekeepers think.

I agree, it’s a shame that independently published books aren’t judged on their own merits. I’ve been having this conversation on and off for the last couple of months over on my blog at http://FrankieRobertson.wordpress.com

It’s easy to take the position that all detractors from self-publishing are prejudiced idiots, but they’re not. Some of their points have merit. It’s worth listening to them, even if in the end we decide indie-publishing is the best route for us.

On August 10, 2010 at 11:59 pm Books and Bites said:

I will have to check out blog so thank you for the link.

I just think that each book should be judged o it own merits and not because of the way it was brought to the market.

I know that there are some people that embrace all books at matter who the publisher of record is and just wsh that there were more readers and writers with that mind set, to give anyone a chance.